Help! Screaming hen

[city kid farm]

I have a hen that is incredibly loud and it sounds like she's injured and wailing. It's really unpleasant and, oh yeah, LOUD.

She started making this noise when she is getting ready to lay - she panics and runs in and out of the coop screaming. This can go on for hours. She didn't lay yesterday so all was quiet then this morning she started with the screaming. What I have been doing is locking her in the coop when she does this and she generally quiets and gets down to business.

Unfortunately, she started doing this even after she laid today. In fact she hasn't stopped screaming all day. My neighbors are all very close and it really isn't fair to them.

Is there a super secret way to make a chicken stop vocalizing?

I would rehome her immediately, but she's my son's chicken and he's desperate to keep her.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Lotsapaints]

She's a new layer? If she's a young pullet she should quiet down some it seems that I have one or 2 pullets who act like they laid a "watermelon" for sometimes nothing. It seems to quiet down in a couple of weeks though you will have hens that like to sing just to help another one lay...chickens make noise....

 

[cluckiemama]

We were wondering about that, too. We got 6 pullets and were fairly certain they were all female- until the noisy mornings started! They are so noisy I was afraid they were roosters and the neighbors would have a fit. That was a few weeks ago, and they are still noisy- but no complaints yet. I figure it must hurt to pass an egg?

 

[zazouse]

I have 1 hen out of a 100 that does the very same thing a couple times a week, she never out grew it and she is 3 now,

I swear she is just trying to get a hen to leave the nest she wants, she sits there bawk-bawking waiting for particular a nest, next thing ya know she comes flying out like something is after her, gets everyone upset and sure enough she goes back in all calm like nothing happened while the others are still upset and takes the nest she had been waiting for.

I have one hen that cackles every time another hen lays an egg untill she lays her own.

You can try to wait it out or rehome her if it is too much to bare.

Good luck with her, she's just a loud mouth

 

[Annabella]

I'm always conscious of my neighbours.
But every now and then the girls all congratulate each other when they each lay eggs - the noise is atrocious!!
You might have to lock her up in the coop and just let her out for a few hours at the end of the day?
Hope she settles down for you.

 

[city kid farm]

Thanks for the advice and the tales - you guys made my morning.

She's been laying for about two weeks now. It's really only been the last few days that she's been so consistently vocal.

No word from the neighbors, but I really don't want it to get to the point where they're upset. I may try locking her up until she quiets down.

 

[conroy]

My girls will do this sometimes as well...most of my neighbors think it's adorable <--- luckily

 

[city kid farm]

I have to offer Lizzie up - free to a good home. She's just got too much song in her for our tiny back yard. Right now I lock her in the coop when she starts up, but that's not fair to her. Sigh. My kids are going to be a wreck.

 

[mmaddie's mom]

Why are all the "free to a good home" so far away? *sigh*

 

[tuesdays chicks]

if you have a decent enough size of a coop just lock her up with food and water when she starts making the noise and let her out when she stops, the crows make more noise then my chickens.